Seminole

Seminole, North American Indian tribe of Creek origin who speak a Muskogean language. In the last half of the 18th century, migrants from the Creek towns of southern Georgia moved into northern Florida, the former territory of the Apalachee and Timucua. By about 1775 those migrants had begun to be known under the name Seminole, probably derived from the Creek word simanó-li, meaning “separatist,” or “runaway.” The name may also have derived from the Spanish cimarrón, “wild.”

The Seminoles located their new villages in the Everglades, a patchwork of dense thickets and wetlands that provided protective isolation from outsiders. There they were almost immediately joined by individuals—Africans, African Americans, and American Indians—who had escaped from slavery as well as by others attempting to avoid the bloody power struggles between European colonizers and other Southeast Indians. (See also Black Seminole.) The Seminoles generally welcomed those newcomers. Their economy emphasized hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods such as nuts and berries; they also grew corn (maize), beans, squash, melons, and other produce on high ground within the wetlands. Homes included substantial log cabins and, later, thatched-roof shelters with open sides known as “chickees,” which promoted maximum ventilation. People typically wore long tunics; by the late 19th century, Seminole clothing was often decorated with brightly coloured strips of cloth.

In an effort to stem further colonial encroachment and to avoid forced removal to the west, the Seminoles fought a succession of wars in 1817–18, 1835–42, and 1855–58 (see Seminole Wars). As a result of the First Seminole War, Spain ceded its Florida holdings to the United States. In 1832 a treaty proposal that would have obligated the Seminoles to move west of the Mississippi River was rejected by a large portion of the tribe. The Second Seminole War was one of the costliest of the U.S.-Indian wars, with military expenditures exceeding $20 million. In 1838 Osceola and other tribal leaders agreed to meet the U.S. military under a flag of truce, but the U.S. forces broke the truce by imprisoning the men, and Osceola died in custody some three months later. Fighting continued sporadically for another four years, but the tribe eventually surrendered. The people were required to move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and were resettled in the western part of the Creek reservation there. A few Seminoles remained in Florida.

In Oklahoma the Seminoles became one of the Five Civilized Tribes, which also included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw, all of whom had been forcibly removed from the southeastern United States by the federal government in the 1830s. For three-quarters of a century each tribe had a land allotment and a quasi-autonomous government modeled on that of the United States. In preparation for Oklahoma statehood (1907), some of that land was allotted to individual tribal members; the rest was opened up to nonnative homesteaders, held in trust by the federal government, or allotted to freed slaves. Federal policies effectively dissolved the Oklahoma tribal governments in 1906; changes in those federal policies resulted in the revitalization of the tribal governments in the mid-20th century.

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For some 40 years after the Seminole Wars, those Seminoles who stayed in Florida endured hardships related to their resistance to removal. By the close of the 19th century, however, relations with neighbouring Euro-Americans had improved. During the first half of the 20th century, tribal members regained some 80,000 acres of land from the U.S. government, and in 1957, a century after the end of the Seminole Wars, the Seminole tribe of Florida regained federal recognition. Over the next 50 years the tribe developed economic programs ranging from citrus production to tourist attractions and infrastructure, including an ecotourism park, a tribal museum, a casino, and a private airstrip.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 27,000 individuals of Seminole descent.